BOU AVENUEInvincible LakeOn 27
July 2003, Dan Millar, Kelly Wood and I hiked to Invincible Lake in Peter
Lougheed Provincial Park. I had been bagging peaks for several weekends,
and after my brush with dehydration on Mount Aylmer, I decided
it would be nice to visit a lake for a change especially with no let-up in
the hot weather. Getting to the lake proved to be tougher than I had
anticipated though. We started out along the trail to Three Isle Lake
and turned up an overgrown fireroad at the Invincible Creek crossing. Scrambling
over, under and around deadfall on this road was only half as annoying as
fighting off the relentless swarms of mosquitoes and horseflies which plagued
us all day. Upon reaching a large cairn in the road, we followed a
beaten path heading straight up the steep hillside. Our nice hike soon
deteriorated into a gruelling bash up through an old burn to the ridge crest
some 500 metres above the fireroad. Deadwood strewn all over the hillside
made progress miserable. After gaining the ridge crest, we essentially
plunged down the other side to a rocky creek bed before climbing over a small
rise to reach the lake.

Getting through the old burn is the most
difficult part of the whole trip.

From the ridge crest, Invincible Lake
is hidden behind the grassy rise at centre. To the right is Mount
Nomad.

Invincible Lake sits at the bottom of
Mount Nomad's west slopes. The peak partially in shadow is Mount Warspite.

East of Invincible
Lake is a small hump known as Mount Nomad, named after one of the ships
sunk in the Battle
of Jutland. While Dan and Kelly were content to relax by the lakeshore,
I found the lure of an easy ascent too hard to resist. It took me
only a lazy hour to traverse Mount Nomad from south to north. I even
had to backtrack a bit during the descent when I realized that my small
camera tripod had slipped quietly out of my pocket (luckily I found it).

The top of Mount Nomad is merely a ridge
walk.

Here is Invincible Lake as seen from
the top of Mount Nomad.

Sonny stands atop the 2544-metre summit
of Mount Nomad.

The cirque to the north invites further
exploration. Mount Warspite is on the right.

East of Mount Nomad is the impressive
west face of Mount Invincible. Also visible just below Sonny's knee
is the north peak of Mount Indefatigable.

This is the view of Invincible Lake from
the north.

After I regrouped with Dan
and Kelly at the lake, we retraced our steps back up the ridge before descending
through the old burn which was only marginally easier going down than going
up. The remainder of the trip was marked by sore feet, tormenting
bugs and oppressive heat from the late afternoon sun.

Kelly and Dan take a mental breather
before plunging down the hillside full of dead trees and fireweed.